JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2262
WILSON EXPECTED TO RECOMMEND WAR DECLARATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 28, 1917, "the highest officials of the government next to the President (were) confident that the executive (would) recommend the declaration of a state of war" against Germany.
Arthur Sears Henning began his front page story in the Chicago Daily Tribune of March 29, 1917 by relating, however, that there were only two men who really knew what President Woodrow Wilson would do on the question of war. One was the President himself and the other was Colonel E.M. House*, the president's chief unofficial adviser.
What was known 100 years ago today, was that the President was scheduled to speak to an "extraordinary session of Congress" to announce his decision.
Mr. Henning expressed the view that Mr. Wilson was "leaning toward drastic action." His view was based on the fact that Secretary of State Lansing had sent a cable to all American diplomats in neutral nations requesting that they ask the governments to which they were accredited whether or not armed merchantmen would be given entrance into the ports of those nations.
*Edward Mandell House (1858-1938) was born in Houston, TX to a businessman who set blockade runners against the Union blockade in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War. EMH studied at Cornell University & became adviser to 4 Texas governors. After moving to NY, EMH became a close friend & political supporter of NJ Governor Woodrow Wilson.
SOURCES
"War or peace, Decision Lies with Wilson," by Arthur Sears Henning, The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 29, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
Colonel Edward M. House
WILSON EXPECTED TO RECOMMEND WAR DECLARATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) 100 years ago today, March 28, 1917, "the highest officials of the government next to the President (were) confident that the executive (would) recommend the declaration of a state of war" against Germany.
Arthur Sears Henning began his front page story in the Chicago Daily Tribune of March 29, 1917 by relating, however, that there were only two men who really knew what President Woodrow Wilson would do on the question of war. One was the President himself and the other was Colonel E.M. House*, the president's chief unofficial adviser.
What was known 100 years ago today, was that the President was scheduled to speak to an "extraordinary session of Congress" to announce his decision.
Mr. Henning expressed the view that Mr. Wilson was "leaning toward drastic action." His view was based on the fact that Secretary of State Lansing had sent a cable to all American diplomats in neutral nations requesting that they ask the governments to which they were accredited whether or not armed merchantmen would be given entrance into the ports of those nations.
*Edward Mandell House (1858-1938) was born in Houston, TX to a businessman who set blockade runners against the Union blockade in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War. EMH studied at Cornell University & became adviser to 4 Texas governors. After moving to NY, EMH became a close friend & political supporter of NJ Governor Woodrow Wilson.
SOURCES
"War or peace, Decision Lies with Wilson," by Arthur Sears Henning, The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 29, 1917, www.archives.chicagotribune.com/
Colonel Edward M. House
Bain Photograph (1915)
Library of Congress Image
